Which sexual misconduct cases against Donald Trump resulted in civil settlements or verdicts?
Executive summary
The most concrete civil outcomes tied directly to sexual-misconduct allegations against Donald Trump are the E. Jean Carroll cases: a May 2023 federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her and awarded $5 million, and later a separate federal jury ordered a vastly larger defamation award that has been litigated on appeal (reported as $83.3 million in subsequent rulings) — decisions that have been upheld in parts by appellate courts as they continue to be appealed [1] [2] [3] [4]. Other claims have produced isolated settlements or dismissals, but public reporting and court records in the provided sources identify Carroll’s verdicts as the central civil findings tied to allegations of sexual abuse [5] [3].
1. E. Jean Carroll: a rare civil verdict finding liability for sexual abuse and defamation
A New York federal jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll and for defaming her by calling her a liar after she went public with her allegation; the jury awarded $5 million in damages, a decision reported across major outlets and legal summaries [1] [5] [2]. Court records and post-trial filings show the verdict included separate damage allocations — for example, one court document broke awards into compensatory and punitive components for sexual battery and defamation — and Trump sought remittitur and a new trial, motions that were denied in some rulings [4]. Appeals courts have since reviewed aspects of the trial; a federal appeals court upheld the sexual-abuse finding in December 2024 while other defamation awards have been subject to further appellate review [3] [6].
2. Follow-on defamation damages and ancillary rulings connected to Carroll
After the initial May 2023 finding, juries and judges issued additional awards tied to defamatory statements Trump made while president, producing much larger dollar figures that have been reported as totaling roughly $83.3 million in one federal order and discussed in subsequent appeals and reporting; parts of those awards have been sustained by appeals courts while others remain under challenge [3] [7]. Media outlets and court analyses note that the 2023 finding legally labeled Trump as having sexually abused Carroll under New York civil standards, but also emphasize the civil — not criminal — nature of the sanction, meaning financial liability rather than criminal penalties [8] [3].
3. Other alleged victims, settlements and gaps in public reporting
Reporting and summaries of allegations list dozens of women who have accused Trump of various forms of sexual misconduct over decades, but the provided sources do not document other civil verdicts holding Trump liable for sexual abuse comparable to Carroll’s case; some plaintiffs pursued suits that were later dropped or resolved in ways not publicly detailed in the supplied material [9] [1]. For example, reporting indicates that a plaintiff named Harth later dropped a suit after a separate settlement in an unrelated breach-of-contract matter, but the sources do not present a clear record of that suit producing a public civil judgment tied to sexual-misconduct allegations [8]. The absence of detailed settlement records in these sources means this analysis cannot catalog private settlements that were never filed publicly or that remain confidential.
4. Media and institutional settlements indirectly tied to the Carroll verdict
The reverberations from the Carroll verdict produced at least one high-profile media settlement: ABC News agreed to pay Trump $15 million to resolve a defamation claim after its anchor misstated that Trump had been found “liable for rape,” an inaccuracy tied to public confusion over the civil verdict’s precise legal terms [10]. That settlement illustrates how civil findings about sexual abuse can spawn downstream litigation and payouts in media contexts, even when the core allegations are addressed in other court proceedings [10].
5. Context, contested narratives and ongoing litigation
Coverage and court papers make plain that Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing, appealed adverse rulings, and argued procedural and evidentiary errors in the Carroll litigation; his legal team characterized some evidence as improper and continues to press appeals, a reminder that civil verdicts can remain contested for years in higher courts [3] [2] [6]. The sources collectively show that while many allegations have been reported, the only widely documented civil verdicts tied directly to sexual-misconduct claims in the provided material are the Carroll jury findings and subsequent defamation awards and settlements tied to the public fallout; other claims either did not result in publicized civil judgments or are not covered in these sources [1] [5] [10].